Re: [Usability] Save Icon

[Evandro Fernandes Giovanini <efgiovanini gmail com>]

Em Ter, 2006-01-31 às 00:46 +0100, David Christian Berg escreveu:
> > "...the toolbar button for Paste still gets clicked more than any other
> > button.  The command is so incredibly popular that <i>even though there
> > are more efficient ways of using it</i>, many people do prefer to click
> > the toolbar button." (highlight from me)
> 
> So what do you suggest? For copy/paste/cut I use Ctrl+c/v/c. I use Ctrl
> +z for undo and Ctrl+Shift+z for redo. But I know _many_ people who just
> use the toolbar buttons. Key shortcuts aren't discoverable and there are
> many people, esp in the Gnome target group of "Gradmas" who will never
> ever use them. Menu entries on the other hand are anything but more
> efficient to use!
> An applications, where copying and pasting is a common action (inkscape,
> open office ...) should definitely have those buttons for those people
> less used to the keyboard.
> Same with the save button: As long as we got the concept of save (which
> I do like, because I sometimes work on a document without wanting to
> save it, after printing or exporting), we must have a quick way of
> accessing save for people who don't use Ctrl+s. A toolbar button is what
> comes to ones mind immediately.
> 

There are at least three ways to use the Copy/Paste function:

1) the Edit menu;
2) the context menu;
3) keyboard shortcuts (which, btw, are discoverable in GTK+ apps).

1 works almost everywhere, 2 and 3 work everywhere. This means a person
that learns 2 or 3 will easily be able to copy a web address or a link
location from the web browser and paste in a IM conversation (this
includes grandma sending a message to someone). There are no Copy/Paste
buttons in the web browser or the IM chat window: what should grandma do
then?

Now, if someone learned to use the buttons from one application's
toolbar they'll have to learn yet another way of doing it in order to
actually use this feature in different applications. Chances of them not
using the feature are higher, I think, which is a problem since copying
from a web browser to a text editor is very common these days.

The only reason I mentioned Apple in my previous message is that I
believe their interface is a lot more grandma-friendly than what
Microsoft produces and they don't use these buttons. I did expect the
grandma argument to come up. (I don't want to reduce this discussion to
"Apple does it!" though).

But since I mentioned Apple one perfect example is a comparison between
Safari and Internet Explorer 6. Safari has 4 toolbar buttons, IE has at
least 14 (I can't see them all on the screenshot I'm looking at because
they don't even fit the screen!). Because of that Safari feels more
comfortable (specially to grandmas) and uses a lot less screen space
(leaving more to the actual document). And it still manages to have a
more useful interface, with the Google search bar and the bookmarks.

To sum up my opinion about Copy, Paste, Print, etc : 

1) The controls provided by these buttons are available in several
applications, not only a few (Office, etc). Making the use of these
features (copy and pasting, printing, etc) consistent in all
applications makes the use of these features in all applications easier.

2) Adding a button to a toolbar takes space. The bigger the toolbar is,
the smaller is the area displaying the actual document the user is
working on. Also, if the toolbar is too big the developers are forced to
remove text labels, making the toolbar inconsistent with the desktop and
killing the discoverability of a toolbar button (one of the reasons for
adding one).

3) Each button adds "clutter". In other words, an application with 4
toolbar buttons is usually more comfortable and easier to use than an
application with 14.

Cheers,
Evandro